Blogging About Critters Since 2007

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Mexican Activists Staged Protest Early this Month

Late on this story. I copied the full article from the Latin American Herald Tribune.
MEXICO CITY – Animal rights activists staged a protest against the sale of pets in Mexico City, urging residents to adopt dogs and other animals instead of buying them.

Twelve activists took part in the demonstration organized by the AnimaNaturalis group Tuesday at the iconic Juarez monument on one of the capital’s main streets.

Two of the activists, one painted to look like a dog and the other like a cat, stood in gift boxes holding signs that urged people not to view animals as toys and to adopt pets instead of purchasing them.

The protest’s goal was to make “society aware” of the fact that animals “need time, love and lots of care,” AnimaNaturalis said.

“Trade in animals considered objects or toys grows alarmingly” during this time of the year, “and when they grow or are kept for a time, they are discarded,” AnimaNaturalis Mexico director Maria Teresa Menendez told Efe.

Parents and children should be “conscientious and take responsibility for raising pets and, in any case, it is better to adopt, neuter and care for domestic animals,” Menendez said.

Eight of every 10 dogs sold in Mexico end up in the streets, with most of them having been family pets at some point, official figures show.

Mexico City, one of the world’s largest cities, has an estimated 3 million street dogs that end up being killed in shelters or the victims of human cruelty. EFE

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

EU Bans Battery Cages

To offset yesterday's crappy news about California, here's good news from the EU!

Full article on Food Safety News....
As of Jan. 1, 2012, egg-laying hens across many European countries will live with fewer discomforts: The European Commission has officially implemented its ban on battery cages, the notoriously cramped cages used by many egg farmers and criticized by animal rights proponents and veterinarians who call them cruel and harmful to the birds' welfare.

The law, finalized in 1999, comes after a 12-year "phase-out" period meant to allow egg farmers time to implement the costly transition away from battery cages. According to the Scotsman newspaper, replacing battery cages with more-hospitable "enriched" cages has alone cost U.K. egg producers an estimated £400 million ($613 million).

Most farmers in participating countries have opted for the enriched cages, installing roomier enclosures that allow hens to stretch their wings, roost on an elevated platform and nest in a designated nesting area. Others have arranged for barns or other free-range systems, but the law now clearly reserves hens a seat at a nest.

That opportunity to properly nest will do the most to improve hen well-being, said Ian J.H. Duncan, Ph.D., Emeritus Chair in Animal Welfare at the University of Guelph in Ontario and the President of the Animal Welfare Foundation of Canada. Duncan has been studying the effects of battery cages on hens since the early 1970s, when he worked at the Poultry Research Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Terrible News. US Supreme Court Strikes Down California "Downer Cow" Law

Clearly a win for the damn livestock industry. It was a question of federal vs. state authority. Sucks. And it was a unanimous decision.

Read the full story at CNN....
A state law mandating "humane treatment" of downed livestock headed for the slaughterhouse was unanimously overturned Monday by the Supreme Court.

At issue was whether federal regulations dealing with inspection of domesticated animals about to be killed, processed, and sold for human consumption preempted -- or nullified -- California Penal Code 599f.

Several justices had earlier noted the good intentions behind the state action, but all now agreed that it went too far into the traditional federal arena.

U.S. Supreme Court rules on health care challenge| GPS tracking

"The Federal Meat Inspection Act regulates slaughterhouses' handling and treatment of non-ambulatory pigs from the moment of their delivery through the end of the meat production process," wrote Justice Elena Kagan. "California's (law) endeavors to regulate the same thing, at the same time, in the same place -- except by imposing different requirements. The FMIA expressly preempts such a state law."

Friday, January 20, 2012

Air Canada To Stop Shipping Lab Primates

Excellent news! Animal advocacy groups have been lobbying for this for a while.

Thank you Air Canada! The announcement below comes verbatim from the Pacific Free Press.....they still need approval from the Canadian Transportation Agency though.
Today, more than 40 animal advocacy organizations across Canada praised Air Canada for its recent decision to stop shipping non-human primates into the country for use in research laboratories.

The coalition – the Canadian Coalition Against Animal Research and Experimentation (CCAARE) which includes the Calgary Animal Rights Effort, Stop Animal Testing at Dalhousie University, and Stop UBC Animal Research among many others – also urged the Canadian Transportation Agency to approve Air Canada's new policy.

Airlines in Canada must obtain approval from the CTA to revise their shipping guidelines. Unfortunately, the CTA is requiring Air Canada to continue shipping primates to laboratories while it considers the issue.


"We applaud Air Canada for wanting to get out of the monkey business," said Brian Vincent, Coordinator of the CCAARE and Director of Stop UBC Animal Research. "We urge the Canadian Transportation Agency to immediately approve Air Canada's new, compassionate policy."

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Humane Society Ranks States on Animal Welfare

Here's a way to find out how your state ranks.

California is #1 again....yay! Washington State, where I currently live, is #6!

At the bottom....(drum roll please) South Dakota!!!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Beef Farm's Trucks Burned by Activists

I don't support the destruction of property or any physical threats against people who harm animals whether through medical testing or through conventional agriculture. It does nothing but make the targets more wedded to their positions and it garners sympathy from the general public. And, this happened in Fresno County which is in the San Joaquin Valley of California. I grew up there. Believe me, they are NOT helping their cause at all.

Full story here at the Fresno Bee.....
Animal rights activists are behind the burning of cattle trucks at Harris Farms in western Fresno County early Sunday, according to a statement released by a clearinghouse for activists.

The statement purports to describe how the fire, which heavily damaged 14 tractors and several cattle-hauling trailers, was set and says the attack was aimed at "the horrors of factory farming."

Harris Farms CEO and Chairman John Harris said in an email Tuesday that he and others with the ranch are "appalled by this senseless, but very alarming attack." He called it a terrorist action.

"I had suspected Animal Liberation Front may have been involved and now they are in fact claiming responsibility for it with multiple details," Harris wrote.

The clearinghouse that distributed the statement claiming credit for the arson is the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, which says it has no direct dealings with underground groups or illegal activity.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Alleged Abuse at Butterball Turkey Farm

Once again, the wonderful Mercy for Animals provides footage of possible abuse of turkeys at a Butterball farm in North Carolina.

The full story is at CNN.

Monday, January 9, 2012

University of Florida Must Relinguish Primate Records

This is good news, at least in my opinion.

Full article in the Gainesville Sun....
An Alachua County Circuit Court judge has ordered the University of Florida to provide an animal rights activist with records on primates involved in research.

Camille Marino of Wildwood, who founded the group Negotiation is Over, received the records last week. She said she plans to use them to continue a campaign against animal research at UF, which recently included the online posting of the layout of UF laboratories and university spokeswoman Janine Sikes's cellphone number.

“They could not do what they do if they didn't do it behind a wall of secrecy,” Marino said. “This is about tearing down that wall.”

Sikes received more than a dozen calls, including a death threat that UF police are investigating. She said UF resisted releasing the records out of concern about the safety of researchers.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Yikes! Feds Want to Castrate Wild Mustangs!

It's a proposal for population control. Read the whole story here.
Federal wildlife managers are fighting in court to take the unprecedented step of castrating 200 wild stallions in Nevada, in an effort to control surging populations of wild horses across the West.

Animal-rights activists oppose the plan, which they contend would strip the wild stallions of their fighting spirit and change herd dynamics. A coalition of horse advocates last month filed suit to block the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from castrating the stallions, also known as gelding. In response, the agency agreed to postpone the castration until a federal court in Washington, D.C., can hear arguments later this year

Federal scientists contend they have no choice but to try dramatic steps such as castration because the wild horse population is out of control—and costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year. Mustangs have few natural predators, and herds can double in size every four years. "We're on an unsustainable path," said Tom Gorey, a spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management.
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